MRMH: How did you come to work in MRI? Kelly: I participated in University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Co-op program during my undergrad, during which I joined the BC Children’s hospital working with Dr. Bruce Bjornson on a fMRI research project. I then met Alan (senior author of this paper) through connec- tions I made at that time and he was also the second reader on my undergraduate thesis. He offered me a po- sition to do my Master’s in his lab, but I wanted to stay in Vancouver. Two years later, I contacted him again and joined his lab to do my PhD. MRMH: Can you please give us a brief summary of the paper? Kelly: We are exploring the accuracy and sensitivity of simultaneous T 2 /B 1 mapping methods via two dif- ferent models for fitting multi-echo spin echo experi- ments, namely Bloch simulations and Extended Phase Graphs (EPG). e main difference between the two is that the Bloch simulation approach calculates the slice profile exactly, whereas the EPG approach approxi- mates it. We used simulations, phantom, and human brain experiments to determine findings. We found that EPG and Bloch approaches provided similar T 2 results in most cases, though they are systematically different. e Bloch approach, and EPG with SLR slice profiles provided the best T 2 values. However, when T 2 and B 1 are simultaneously fit, EPG fitting provides highly inaccurate B 1 , although T 2 is adequate. is is due to the slice profile approximation used by EPG. We also found that providing an accurate B 1 map to the EPG algorithm leads to further inaccuracies in T 2 , thus a B 1 map should not be provided to the EPG approach. In contrast, the Bloch approach is effective either as a simultaneous fit, or with provided B 1 map. e Bloch approach is much less susceptible to noise when an accurate B 1 map is provided, and we recom- mend using a separately measured B 1 map when it is available. However, if the provided B 1 map is inaccu- 30 MAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE HIGHLIGHTS | APRIL 2018 | VOLUME THREE ISMRM.ORG/MRM Q&A KELLY MCPHEE Among the Editor’s picks for May comes a paper from the department of physics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. In their work entitled, “Transverse relaxation and flip angle mapping: Eval- uation of simultaneous and independent methods using multiple spin echoes”, Kelly McPhee and Alan Wilman evaluated transverse relaxation (T 2 ) and flip angle maps derived from Bloch simulations and Extended Phase Graphs (EPG). We conducted this interview with Kelly on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the Honolulu conven- tion center during the annual ISMRM meeting. Accuracy and sensitivity of simultaneous T 2 /B 1 mapping INTERVIEW BY ATEF BADJI AND NIKOLA STIKOV McPhee, K. C. and Wilman, A. H. Transverse relaxation and flip angle mapping: Evaluation of simultaneous and independent methods using multiple spin echoes. Magn Reson Med. 2017;77: 2057–2065. doi:10.1002/mrm.26285 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mrm.26285/full EDITOR’S PICK FOR MAY Alan Wilman and Kelly McPhee